Owen Fracture Zone

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Owen Fracture Zone

The Owen Fracture Zone[1] is a transform fault which runs along the eastern boundary of the Arabian Plate, separating it from the Indo-Australian Plate for most of its length, and from the African Plate for a much shorter distance. It extends from the Carlsberg Ridge in the south, meets the Sheba Rift segment of the Aden Ridge, and then continues northeastward across the northwest Indian Ocean until it meets the convergence zone in the Iran-Pakistan border region where the continental crust of the Arabian Plate is colliding with the continental crust of the Eurasian Plate.

In some usages, the name Owen Transform Fault is used to denote the short section between the end of the Aden-Sheba ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge. Additionally, this area has been called the Aden-Owen-Carlsberg Triple Junction, although the Carlsberg Ridge is offset from the point where the Owen Fracture Zone/Fault intersects the Sheba segment of the Aden Ridge.

Owen Fracture Zone is named after HMS Owen that identified the 'fracture line' in April/May 1963.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Shear margins: Continent-ocean transform and fracture zone boundaries
  2. ↑ "HMS Owen, British survey ship, post-WW2". Naval-history.net. Retrieved 2012-03-30. 
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